NORTH CRAWFORD - Though many may still be enjoying that summer vacation feeling, new North Crawford School District superintendent Scott Uppena has hit the ground running. From a move to relocate to the area, to continuing to prepare next year’s budget and for the return of students, to assessing lightning strike damage to the school’s electronics, Uppena has plenty on his plate.

“It’s been it's been a great transition - a little bit of a whirlwind with moving here,” Uppena shared with the board. “I've been trying to live here and absorb as much information as I can. Brandon was great in transition. He shared all of his files, so I've been able to go through and start to get a handle on some historical practices and where we lie budget wise. Both Tina Volden and Angie Boland have been phenomenal, as well, in helping with that transition and answering questions.”

Uppena said that some school staff have been in and out of the building, and have introduced themselves. He said he is grateful for all the kind words, and expressed excitement to be part of the community, the school, and something extremely positive in the district.

“I've been in a small rural school my whole life, and it's home for me,” Uppena said.

Putting in place a key expense component of the 2026-2027 school budget, the board passed a 2.63% salary/wage increase for district support, professional and administrative staff.

“At the board’s June meeting, Brandon had laid that out for you what the cost was going to be, and the recommendation was at that point to do it as an entire group,” Uppena told the board.

The annual U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate is 3.5% for the 12-month period ending in June. On a monthly basis, the overall CPI fell by 0.4% in June, According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The core inflation rate, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, stands at 2.6% over the same 12-month period.

Lightning strikes

Board president Terry O’Donnell asked Uppena for an update on damage to school electronics from lightning strikes two weeks before.

“It was actually about 9 a.m., and I was walking down the hall, and heard a big crash, boom! No one knew exactly what had happened, but there was either a lightning strike that was close or a direct hit,” Uppena responded. “Right away we lost power, but the generators kicked in. The maintenance team were doing assessments right away, trying to figure out what had happened and where there was damage.”

Uppena said that then, over the weekend, there was another incident, which triggered another loss of power, and seems to have resulted in issues between the transfer power and generator.

“Basically, there were a number of electronic boards that got fried, I think three of them,” Uppena recounted. “If there would have been a loss of electricity at that point, the generator would not have been able to get and transfer the power. So obviously that has to be fixed.”

Uppena said he wasn’t ready to share costs yet with the board because at this point it is just an estimate. He said that the Maintenance Team is bringing in contractors and electricians to get a handle on it. He said one thing that had been identified was that circuit boards controlling the handicap doors in the building got damaged or fried. The monitor on his own desk appears to have been affected, and he said there may be more equipment that was damaged, with assessment slowed due to staff not being in the building. North Crawford District Bookkeeper Angie Boland had immediately contacted the insurance company to let them know there is the possibility of a claim, and took detailed notes on what the company would need from the district to process a claim.

“They're going through and being methodical in assessing electronic equipment, so that when we do get to the point where we're ready to put a claim in, we have everything on there,” Uppena explained. “My fear is that if we find things out later, and we didn't report it on the first round, they're going to say no, we're not going to cover that, because there's no proof that happened during this incident. So, they're trying to be as thorough as possible.”

AI in schools

North Crawford Middle School/High School Principal, Dr. Robert Sailer, reported he had just returned from a conference in Orlando with a strong focus on artificial intelligence (AI) in schools. He said that of the five key takeaways, first and foremost is the fact that “AI isn’t coming – it’s already here.

“There's part of our world that doesn't know AI exists, and the other part of our world is running a million miles an hour with it,” Sailer observed. “AI is a tool. It's not going to replace teachers - that was the big emphasis of the conference. AI doesn't know the student, doesn't know the individual, doesn't know the home life, doesn't know all the pieces that we know about them. So, AI is just a tool to help enhance the teacher. Every generation has a game-changing technology.”

Sailer listed multiple examples of these game-changing technologies which impacted education. In the 1850s, it was the slate and chalk, where the fear was that students would no longer rely on oral transmission of knowledge and memorization. In the 1890s, it was libraries, where the fear was that students might read inappropriate books. In the 1920s, it was radio, where the fear was that educational radio could replace teachers. In the 1950s it was television, and later, pocket calculators. Then, it was the internet, and now artificial intelligence.

“We must prepare our students for the future,” Sailer emphasized. “I think the next step is getting all staff at an equal playing level, using similar platforms. One thing that stuck out for me was sitting through a session, and a gentleman had interviewed some of the Fortune 500 companies and asked what the companies are looking for in job candidates. What he learned is they no longer interview candidates - they interview teams and the person. In explaining the notion of interviewing teams, they said they want to look at who the person is, along with what chatbots they bring. So, what can you do with your technology to enhance the position?”

North Crawford School Board member Mark Fredelake asked what the big emphases were in terms of teaching kids, and implementation of AI in education.

“It’s all about teaching content prompt to get ahead in the detail of the problem,” Sailer responded. “So, let’s say the problem is to paint a picture of a farm. Well, you need to state what you want on the farm. So prompting is going to be key. How to get kids to understand how to get what they want, not just a broad answer - that's the biggest thing.”

Fredelake then asked what Sailer had learned about responsible use of AI, and when to use it and when not to use it.

“Yes, that is all part of international home digital platforms right now that provide education for kids,” Sailer answered. “So, our task is to have discussions about how we incorporate AI and what does that look like? It's really changing education very quickly.”

Board member Cody Brockway asked if the district is paying for the platforms they use, or if they are free?

Sailer said that some are free, and some staff pay for different platforms themselves. He said the district has decided to join CESA-3’s consortium for ‘Magic School,’ which will replace Goal Book, for IEP writing, and for approximately the same cost, the district will get access to a very similar product, which has some additional features. In addition to that, he said that if the district chooses to, they can activate options for students to use ‘Edge of School.’

“I think we're taking the right approach with teaching the kids how to use AI rather than restricting it, because it's like Mark was saying, it's coming fast and heavy,” Brockway stated. “Obviously, we have to be mindful, but everyone else is using it, so we need to make sure we're not behind on it.”

“And undoubtedly, there will be policy that will be coming for us to look at, and that policy will have to obviously reflect a number of practices,” Uppena observed.

In other business

In other business, the board:

• heard from North Crawford Elementary Principal Amanda Killen that the three-week summer school program enjoyed record attendance, with as many as 200 kids in the building at times for strength and conditioning and enrichment classes
• heard from Killeen that after summer school concluded, the district is piloting a new program called ‘Art in the Park,’ with two so far in Soldiers Grove, and one in Gays Mills, with 50 kids attending each, which she says is a great way to get into the community and add to the district’s summer school minutes
• heard that Foodservice Director Jen Kapinus recently travelled to North Carolina to receive an award from JTM Crave Competition, where she got the number one ranking in the nation for her Korean Barbecue Chicken Crunch Taco recipe
• approved the itinerary for the 2027 senior class trip to New York, with deposits due on September 15
• approved a 25-cent increase to the cost of lunch in the district, where the program has lost money, and kept breakfast prices the same, putting the district’s lunch prices in the bottom quarter of districts in CESA-3